You Plead to Everyone,

“See the art in me…”

We’re doing a kind of passive talent show on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend at church. Basically people are just going to have things set up in the foyer. My dad’s displaying some of his photography, I’m showing some of my art, Mike’s juggling, etc. It’s kind of cool, because art isn’t the type of thing that can typically be shown at a talent show, so I haven’t been in one since grade six (when Kim and I got it in our heads that singing along to the Sailor Moon soundtrack could be considered a talent!). People seem to immediately think of art when considering my talents, and that’s probably fair enough. I’m fine with that.

The idea on Sunday is to display examples of “God-given talent” and that got me to thinking. I think this “talents” service is a nice idea, but it’s not displaying what I consider to be God-given talents, and I think this for two reasons.

The first is that I don’t think of art as a talent that was given to me. I know one could argue that God gave me the physical ability to draw, and a supportive family and arty friends that encouraged my progression. But on the other hand, never did a lightning bolt hit me and suddenly grant me this ability. I’ve drawn something probably every day of my life since I could hold a pencil. Some semblance of talent was bound to evolve. Same with my brother. In jr. high he used to practice juggling for hours. And of course my dad, same thing for him. He’s probably been interested in photography for the better part of thirty five years or more.

The second reason kind of made me sad. With Mike, dad and I each doing something for the service, my mom said, “Well, I don’t have any talents”. Of course this is so untrue that it was almost physically painful to hear. The truth is, I think we’d all have a pretty hard time performing our God-given talents. Things like having great patience, or being a good teacher, or having wisdom, or mercy, or insight. These are what I consider God-given talents. There are some things you can’t fully learn from a book or by repetition. For example, have you ever heard the phrase, “She’s just not a teacher”? Surely at some point or another we’ve all had the misfortune of having to learn from someone who just wasn’t a teacher. It might be their profession, and they might have been doing it for longer than I’ve been alive, but in some cases, that doesn’t seem to matter. They just aren’t teachers.

So to me, God-given talents are somewhat shrouded in most cases. You can’t tape them to a wall or perform them in five minutes. But I like talent shows, so let’s enjoy Sunday, shall we?

For the record, my mom is a pretty excellent gardener. She sewed my brother’s and my Halloween costumes almost every year growing up, and drew pictures on our birthday cakes in icing and they looked professional. She was (is) always there for me to talk to and she’s not afraid to give advice. She’s organized and she’s smart; she rocked high school and SAIT and was making more money than my dad was when they met! She played the clarinet in school and she can play some songs on the piano, too. Also, she is a great cook and her desserts are the best ever! And that’s just the beginning. So there.

And for fun, I put together a progression of my art since 2000. (Kim actually coloured the 2001 picture.) These are all of my Hogwarts MOO character Avery Fallon. See, there are advantages to being a long-time nerd. Now I have a great way of showing the progression!